Extra money is not to be despised. It buys automatic washers, tumble driers, dish-washers to make life easier and give more real attention-time to the children. It buys time off excursions, holidays. It may make the difference between a town flat and a house with a garden, a better environment for bringing up children. For professional woman there is another difficulty. To give up or even work part-time, probably means climbing painfully back on to the bottom rung of the ladder at 35 or 40 in galling subordination to younger and perhaps less able men. Assuming the still-normal situation-mother at home-there are ways to guard against the imprisoned feeling. Any arrangement will do as long as it’s regular and doesn’t involve renegotiation every time.